Pc storage option QNAP TS-509 Pro, RAID at full power

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QNAP TS-509 Pro, RAID at full power

In recent years the progressive and exponential growth of multimedia content directly influenced a parallel increase in capacity of disks: movies in high definition, high resolution photos and audio clips, need the right space and, more often than not, represent a fundamental part in the collection of each user.

Just need to be able to store and both have always provided this kind of content has led companies in the world of storage to market, again with greater frequency, hard disk capacity with increasingly higher and think they can store Today, on a single disk or PC all your photos or films accumulated over years of use, is unthinkable.

In order to provide an answer to this problem have flourished, especially in large retail chains, numerous offers of external hard disk, which is easily interfaced with their system and designed to ensure a simple deposit expansion in which most of our data Favorites. If the choice to switch to an external solution, be it USB 2.0 or FireWire, is a simple, cheap and fast to backup, or even the simple movement of their data, it is also true that offers few safeguards for the protection of their data.

In that way, you can manage to move data and at the same time ensuring a minimum for security are not lost forever? In this sense, the NAS solutions are a viable answer to this question. With the acronym NAS (Network Attached Storage) means all those external storage unit capable of interfacing to an existing network, offering the opportunity not only to manage and store their data, but also to share with other computers of its Working Group. Obviously the cost compared to a normal external solution yeast especially in relation to ancillary functions .in the example analyzed in this time coming close to the threshold of 1,000 euros.

Generally, nowadays this type of unit are of fact PC with basic functions on which in most cases is pre-installed a Linux based operating system, capable of handling the main tasks that a NAS should be able to perform. The benefits arising from the use of a product of this kind are numerous and go from taking advantage of greater security for their data, given the opportunity to manage a large number of disks in various RAID modes, the possible failure of management discs, easily managed with a highly specialized unit as a NAS.

To test the behavior on the unity NAS here analyzed the QNAP TS-509 Pro This unit can support up to five disks simultaneously and manage many of the RAID mode of operation and more diffuse used, such as 0, 1, 5 and 6 that are going to look over our article.

specifications are here

Intel Celeron Processor :1.6GHz
Memory :1x1 Gbytes DDR2
Hard disk slot :5 x 3.5 "SATA I / II
Storage Capacity :Up to 7.5 TB
Tower Chassis: 261.1 x188, 5x261, 1 mm
power supply :250 Watt
Weight :empty 6 4Kg
Connections : USB 5 USB 2.0 - a front, 4 rear
Connections : 1 eSATA Rear
Connections : 2 Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45
fans: 12cm by 1

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NAS, network attached storage device that is born to be integrated within a pre-existing network. Such devices are usually developed using Linux operating systems-based, offering a different number of features, which go from simple data sharing, the ability to use the unit as a real webserver. The QNAP units taken as example in this short article, once removed the body to protect it like this

A motherboard with housing SO-DIMM memory, five SATA connections, and all other elements of a system that has many features to be shared with the most common PC. Change the format in this case optimized for the management within a chassis so small, and the presence of a 128MB flash memory the only IDE connector, where the operating system resides. The processor, hidden by the body is cooled by a standard CPU heatsink for Intel, in this case without a fan.

In order to optimize the management of records and make much easier the process of editing, much of the NAS of the medium are characterized by high specific slots for hard disks that allow attachment of the same through a quick operation. Once the disks mounted on special sledges, simply slide the unit and close the front, embedded in fact the hard disk into the appropriate drawers: each disk can be fixed to the main through a common key to all five discs.

The ability to remove and insert discs quickly and completely independent and also is crucial especially during the maintenance of unit, if it be a malfunction of even a single disc will be possible during the functionalism, remove this and keep last place. This operation, which is not supported by all modes and all RAID NAS, is also known as hot-swap.

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Connections normally made available by a NAS unit, are those that you can see in the image above the ethernet output is, of necessity, the connection for the proper functioning of a NAS. The presence of possible inputs that can be considered as secondary, such as USB and eSATA, both in the QNAP TS-509 Pro, used for specific applications, such as the print server: connecting to a device of this type a normal printer USB, it will be available to all PCs on the network. The output eSATA instead need to manage or connect any external storage device. You can also note the presence of a RESET button, which is essential if the system goes into block acting on this particular command, the operating system will be restored to its original state.

Raid, principles of operation


Before you can analyze the operating principles of some of the best known and widely used methods is necessary to explain what is a RAID: stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks is a system that uses discs to share, or duplicate the information to improve the speed of recovering them. This technology was patented by IBM in the distant 1978.

The advantages that this solution is able to guarantee product with respect to single disc, are different and make it possible not only to have a greater preservation of data in case of malfunction, but also to improve the performance of disks. Born and initially distributed in the real server, the gradual diffusion and the decrease in cost of hard disk has led Intel and all principal manufacturers to integrate chip chipset that supports basic RAID functions in desktop solutions for the consumer market. In order to ensure optimum operation it is good to suggest, before you set any RAID mode, to have at least two drives of equal size.

The RAID can be implemented in two different ways: hardware and software. With a hardware implementation, it is necessary to have a RAID controller, in the latest generation of motherboards, is generally integrated, the presence of a dedicated controller that can handle the communications and operations of the disks provides an operation that does not aggravate the burden of work of the CPU, making it actually more efficient.

Management software with the operating system handling all of the disks, loading the work directly on the processor, resulting in fact slower and less efficient than the hardware version: in this case there is no need for dedicated controllers. For these reasons and then move on to analyze the main ways in which the RAID is implemented and is currently being used.

RAID 0
This mode is to divide the data equally on two or more disks without any redundancy. The data are divided and written in a separate two or more disks in order to be able to guarantee a recovery of the fast and immediate. The benefits in this case concerns only the performance side, for this reason, in the presence of platforms optimized for gaming, where performance is crucial, it is not uncommon to find two disks configured in RAID 0 and third disc used for data storage. The management of two discs in this particular mode, however, makes it less reliable information retrieval since the MTBF stands for Meantime Between Failure and acronym that is generally identified the life of a disc, it should be divided by two. To summarize, a reliable RAID 0 is half of a single disc. At the malfunctioning of a single disc, the whole system will not be able to function properly: the file system is divided by all the disks in RAID, rendering them incomplete and corrupt if one of the disks stopped working.

JBOD
A system similar to what is seen and analyzed with the RAID 0 is defined JBOD stands for Just a brunch of Disks: This mode is used to combine several disks under a single unit. This mode is only a simple concatenation of disks, which is useful when a clear need to manage different disks as one: if partitioning a hard you can get two logical drives, in this case the operation is completely reversed. Unlike a RAID 0, this particular mode of operation has not been developed to ensure increased performance and writes the data thus sequentially; for Quest reason, in case one of the disks is damaged, the recovery of data shows much more simple.

RAID 1
The third mode is also known as the mirrored (reflected), and as easily understood, is for scenarios where data protection is essential. For proper operation requires two or more disks that the system will be to create an identical copy of the first disk on the second, doubled in fact the reliability of storage system. Raid 1 also increases the system performance in data recovery phase, as in all manner of last generation, you can read data from disk if the secondary were first occupied.

RAID 5
This special mode is also described as "equal distribution" and its implementation requires the presence of at least three disks. The principle of operation is less simple than those analyzed so far, but no less effective, indeed. In fact, the data is distributed across multiple disks, and their equality with the latter term indicating a value for the reconstruction of data possibly corrupted. In order to understand how they work but you must use an example that simplifies the task: if we are to have a system with 5 disks, all information will be distributed in four parts, in our example, 5, 6, 8 and 4. The first part will be placed in the first disc, the second in the second and so on, until the fourth digit, but what will hold the fifth disc? The so-called equality, in this case the sum of 5 +6 +8 +4 = 23. If one of the first four albums were to break on through to the fifth disc, so you can retrieve the data contained on it.

Compared to RAID 1 mode of operation is proving much more efficient at a high number of records, if in the case of RAID 1 for an available space of two 500GB disks are required with this cut, RAID 5 requires instead of only one drive in more than the actual capacity

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Conclusion and Features

The ability to exploit, in many cases, hardware-derived PCs, allows for ancillary functions used so that the full power of the solution. A system equipped with a Celeron processor from 1.6 GHz up by 1GB of memory, would be the simple operation of a chain RAID: Qnap, like many other manufacturers of NAS, has decided to use this computing power available to extend the functionality of the product, thereby providing the right solution to various possible scenarios of use. You can use the unit of network storage for functions ranging from simple "web", the administration of a MySQL server with phpMyAdmin, and more to integrated test and maximize your own web space.

The image shows the list of services available in the case of the Qnap TS-509 Pro interface, which you have access through the browser once described the physical address of the system is intuitive and requires no special skills to be managed in a comprehensive manner. Among the additional features available from from Qnap deserve to be mentioned, in addition to those established Multimedia Station, which is based on the DLNA protocol for sharing multimedia content over several platforms, including one called Download Station. This last function requires the presence of a fully configured torrent client that allows you to independently manage the download of your files without having to leave and then turned on PC.